/ Bradley Wiggins

Bradley WigginsGreat Britain

Bradley Wiggins is one of Britain's most revered cycling stars. He has won seven world titles and in taking time trial gold at London 2012 he has four Olympic gold medals.

Born in Ghent, Belgium, Wiggins started racing at south London's Herne Hill Velodrome aged 12. When he was 20, Wiggins shot to prominence at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, winning a bronze medal for Britain in the team pursuit.

In 2001 he signed for the Linda McCartney Racing Team but, when it split in early 2001, he joined Française des Jeux in 2002, before opting to move to Crédit Agricole in 2004. At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Wiggins became the first British athlete in 40 years to win three medals at one Games, winning gold in the pursuit, silver in the team pursuit and bronze in the madison. His success on the track saw him appointed OBE in the 2005 New Year Honours for services to sport.

At the 2007 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, Wiggins won the individual and team pursuit. At the same event a year later, he returned to Manchester to claim three more gold medals. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics he became the first rider to successfully defend a pursuit title at the Games. He was also a member of the British team who won gold with a world record in the team pursuit. In 2009, he finished fourth in the Tour de France, joining Robert Millar as best British rider in the event.

In December 2009, he left Garmin Slipstream for Team Sky, joining the British team on a four-year deal. Wiggins was installed as one of the pre-event favourites prior to the 2010 Tour de France but, following a disastrous start, he finished a disappointing 24th. Afterwards he admitted he had become "too obsessed" with the Tour. In March 2011, Wiggins finished his first big European stage race of the year with a podium place in the Paris-Nice, finishing behind German Tony Martin and Andreas Kloden.

The 2012 campaign proved a stellar one for Wiggins. He proved his strength with a string of wins in the spring races - suggesting he had a strong chance in the Tour de France. And he reinforced that by becoming the first Brit to win Tour glory. He won both time trials and fought off a string of challengers in the mountains to take the title in Paris.

A matter of weeks later, Wiggins went for time trial gold in his home Olympics and he blew the field away - beating world champion Tony Martin by 47 seconds to win gold.

Career high
Winning the Tour de France, becoming the first British rider to do so

Career low
After vowing to win the 2010 Tour de France, Wiggins finished a lowly 24th

Quotes
"The one thing I really wanted from this Olympics was to get on the Jonathan Ross show." Bradley Wiggins, 2008 Beijing Olympics